Bryn Mawr
Classical Review 04.06.01

Letter: Niermeyer on CD-ROM?

I
wonder whether you
would have an opinion concerning the following. Brill is considering
bringing out a revision and possibly a CD-ROM version of Niermeyer's
Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus. In either case, the transformation of
the material contained in Niermeyer into an electronic database would be
the first step. As the medieval editor for Brill, I am interested in
consulting scholars about what they would expect from such a project, what
they feel are the limitations of the current paper-version of Niermeyer
and how they feel this might be improved, so that we can build a clearer
picture of the needs to be satisfied in the future. Perhaps, I should
stress that we are not aiming for any real increase in the size (1,600
double-column pages) or the price (currently $170) of Niermeyer. We are
looking for an improvement in its functionality. For these reasons it
would greatly help me if you could answer the following questions:

1. what do you feel are the limitations of Niermeyer in its
present form?

2. how do you feel that such
limitations could be overcome?

3. what suggestions
would you have for a general improvement of the work, were it to be
produced in a revised printed form?

4. how you
think that Niermeyer on CD-ROM could fulfill needs not yet satisfied by
the
print version ?

5. if Niermeyer were available on
CD-ROM what would most likely encourage you to use it?

6. what kind of features do you think the CD-ROM
should offer ? e.g. Windows/Mac format ? .... callable from within another
(wordprocessing) program ? .... material from searches
downloadable/printable ? .... special indexes ? What sorts ?
....

7. what do you think the reaction of your
department/library would be, if you requested them to buy Niermeyer on
CD-ROM?

8. do you have any other suggestions
regarding these ideas ?

Please, feel free to forward
this request to third persons or to lists as you see fit.